Ember & Rye — Restaurant in Carlsbad

Too many misses, will revisit in a few months to see if everything starts to click.

Went for lunch at the bar, burgers and whiskey (Mad Men style lunch) , a tad pricey for the quality. Went again last Saturday for dinner and was relatively underwhelmed. This was formerly Argyle Steakhouse and now is a new Steak House under Richard Blais with a 60's modern / vintage feel.

Scotch egg- this is one of the best scotch eggs in the game. Don't think you will find one better anywhere.

The tartare was amazing. served on bread with subtle mustard seeds which complimented the flavor without overpowering and a beef texture that ate almost like a pate. The weird thing was a full on chicken egg (over easy) in a side pan. This was odd and for a high end establishment would have expected the quail egg on top If you're going to give me an egg at all. It felt like ordering a side egg at Denny's.

Oysters were a hodge podge , overpowered with a weird combination of citrus and some dry ice green onions I believe. Then when you went for the oyster by itself ..... well , we must have got a bad batch, it tasted like the oysters were past expiration. They come in batches of three so we had all had one and were not able to send it back.

The potatoes we ordered were the most laughable joke of the night. It was two halves of a potato presented in a smoke box !?!?!?! imagine someone lifting up the cover over your plate at a fine dining establishment and what lies beneath is a plain potato cut in two. They then give you the fixings to put on yourself which really detracts away from the fact you are spending $$$$ to eat here. For the money they really need to get more inspired with their loaded baked potato.

We ended up splitting the 40 oz. rip chop. They carve it table side. The first bite was amazing and you can taste the char and wood fired flavor from the grill. It is how I want the finish on all my steaks to be. But when they are carved and served like this , the internal temperature drops fast so my last bites were cold steak. Don't get me wrong, the steak was very very good. For the hype of this Steakhouse I was expecting a steak in the top 1% steaks I have ever had and it was more in the top 5% I feel for the restaurant here because you need to plan these signature large cuts out. which makes it hard to prep hours in advance (such as to get the steak to room temp) if you do not know if anyone is even going to order it. For this reason the steak ran the gambit of rare in the center to medium rare. Not the typical medium rare consistency you would want throughout.

If you like Whiskey and Bourbon , then they have you covered in he drinks department.

End of the day for the price it was underwhelming and does not feel like fine...

4 Stars is all I can give this restaurant. I had been waiting months to go because I, like many who have posted reviews here, have great expectations based on the Richard Blais we know and love on various TV cooking shows. Furthermore, I have been to Juniper & Ivy and Crack Shack so this visit completed my Trifecta of Blais restaurants in San Diego.

Why 4 stars: Let me take you thru the journey our party of 5 encountered. We arrived a bit early because we were adding an extra person to our reservation and wanted the staff to have advance notice and we wanted to start our evening in the bar with a cocktail. The drinks and wine choices were top notch. The negative was that the bar had no options for a small nosh to go with our drinks which landed on empty stomachs. A starchy thing helps ease you into a night of food indulgence. A small aside is that 2 of our party are Muslim and were breaking fast as this visit was during Ramadan. They really needed a small nosh to break fast. We asked twice and were denied.

On to dinner. Service was great. Staff was attentive, easy to talk with and even joke around. This is a big plus when you are spending a lot of money and likely to be there for 2 hours.

The food. There was this appetizer tower that was great. Many tasty options and a good start to satisfy all palates at the table. Great presentation too. The mains. Steaks were good, not exceptional considering this is billed as a steakhouse. Also the knives were unbelievably dull. And one guest asked for a serrated knife which is not a great sign in my opinion. You read into that what you will. It wasn't my steak. I ordered the Bacon wrapped Filet which was good. My friend ordered the Dungeness crab Bucatini which was disappointing. The sides were mostly great among our favorites were the Thai Cobb, Spicy Chinese Broccoli and Roasted Cauliflower 'Pot Roast'. the Corn Creme Brûlée was a miss and so were the Fries. The Garlic Croissants were a hit with everyone as was the Carrot Cake for dessert.

As far as ambiance. The place isn't cozy, it is a typical upscale restaurant in a large hotel. Good but I wanted some charm and surprise. This was Meh.... Not a reason to miss this place... just wanted something that made this a destination restaurant.

All in all, I would...

You know that feeling when you realize everyone around you is eating their dinner and you're still waiting? That was us tonight. We were lured in by their free babysitting offer and the first half of our experience was lovely. We enjoyed the bahn mi meatballs, the little garlic croissants, and the somm's choice red wine. After that, we enjoyed conversation and waited. And waited. While others around us were receiving courses of food and having the waitress regularly check in and chat, we waited with only one, "your food should be out shortly." Finally when we were at our near-breaking point, a gentleman came over with a shrimp cocktail with a hurried apology about the "slight" delay. While it was a beautiful dish, neither my husband nor I like shrimp cocktail at all, and therefore refused the offer. At that point, we would have much preferred to enjoy our entrees. Finally, about 45-60 minutes of waiting later, we received our main courses with the excuse of having a large table slowing the kitchen (mysteriously only affecting our table and not those nearby that ordered after us). My husband's Denver steak was well-seasoned and tasty. My cedar plank salmon melted in my mouth, although the roe was lost in the mix with the stringy potatoes. The side dishes we ordered sadly disappointed. The bbq carrots were tasty, but a little too smoky. The "crispy" potatoes seemed to have skipped the crispy part (maybe because they rushed to finish our meals) and appeared to be boiled potatoes slathered with barbecue sauce. Sadly, by the time we finished our meal and went to retrieve our kids, the "munchkin minders" had already packed up all the toys, stacked the chairs, and were obviously waiting for us so they could go home. As our children exclaimed, "FINALLY!" we agreed and headed home. Overall, the food was more hit than miss, but the long wait and waitress' avoidance technique made for a less-than-enjoyable dining experience. Oh, yea, they did comp $50...